Angels of Death
by snowflakewriting
Summary: *Usa-centered. Yami no MatsueixSM. Slight shojo ai.* What am I getting myself into, tangling with demons, Shikigami, Shinigami, and demonically angelic doctors? I should have let the supernatural go after Chaos.
1. Heat of the Moment

It was spring. I remember because of the sakura trees... they were so beautiful that year. I wanted to remember them like that forever, encased forever in my mind in a shroud of protection- unclouded by the horrible events that occurred right beneath their branches. I didn't want to remember the ugliness. But I do. And I fear that darkness will never leave me.

* * *

"Usagi!" My eyes opened and my head flew up.

"What?" I snapped quietly. Rei's beautiful face took on an expression of shock. I silently chastised myself; Rei had probably been calling my name for several minutes now, but that didn't change the fact that I had told her three times not to bother me when I dozed off.

"I mean, what is it?" I asked, slightly louder and a good deal more politely. I glanced down at the papers spread over my desk, the papers which had moments before been my pillow. I ran a finger along my cheek, wondering if any of the ink had transferred from the documents to my face. The hard oak desk creaked as I pushed against it, and I looked beyond the dark haired beauty standing several feet from my desk to the window behind ber. The sakura trees were in full bloom. Said beauty's reply interupted my musings.

"I figured you wouldn't mind me waking you up, considering the fact that you're at your desk and not your bed," she retorted sharply as she gestured to the queen-sized bed against the wall to my right. I resisted the urge to ask her sarcastically when I ever slept alone in that bed rather than the couch against the other wall, but the fact that she knew the answer to that question instilled a deep bitterness within me that I hadn't let go of yet- despite the fact that it had been almost three months since our short-lived relationship. I had made her laugh and she had made me happy, but in the end we just didn't work.

"Right, right," I responded in a controlled manner, a silent request not to get in another fight, "so why are you here?" I fixed a sharp blue gaze on her. She had admitted to me once that she found that deep gaze unsettling, and I had used it nonstop since then as my only natural advantage in any fight we happened to get in.

"Ami wants to know if you'll do the shopping," she informed me. Her violet eyes left my own to survey the room with a slightly upturned lip, and I wondered what had ever happened to our friendship. Oh, wait, that's right. It had ended the moment we ended our relationship. It was sad how a month-long romance had ruined almost five years of being best friends. It had made us both unable to let down our guard around each other, afraid that any weakness we divulged would cause the other to jump on it and use it immediately to hurt each other. I wonder if she really hated me as much as I thought she did in that moment.

I sighed and stood, placing my hands on my hips and standing. My shoulders cracked as I revolved them in place and her eyes rested blankly on my face, waiting for my reply. "I'm on it, chief," I told her with a tired smirk and a slouch. She instantly whirled on one heel, making her way to the door and throwing a small square of paper over her shoulder. Her hourglass figure shook enticingly as she left without another word, and I caught the paper in one fist as the fake smirk died on my face.

"Heads up, Usagi," I told myself as I sighed again and looked down at the piece of paper. Scrawled on the tiny square in Ami's small, neat handwriting were the words 'Shopping List'. I cracked my neck loudly as I simultaneously turned and pulled my shirt off, catching sight of my shirtless self in the mirror with no little amount of contempt.

Right after we had graduated from high school, I had decided that I had had enough and broke it off with Mamoru, claiming irrecconcilable differences. The girls had remained behind me as I stood firm in my decision, and Mamoru had agreed that he also had lost any remaining feelings for me and we had split up without any hurt feelings or misunderstandings, still friends. I emailed him every once in a while, but other than that, we didn't talk much.

Shortly after myself and Mamoru seperated, I asked the others if they wanted to move in with me. I remember saying something like, 'The five of us will be like a family!'. Most of us would be gone during the school year off to other places, different countries and even continents, for schooling and such, but that way during the off season and on vacation we would all have a home and a (kind of) family to come home to. The others all agreed immediately, even the ones who already had human families. It was hard to live with normal families who didn't know about the past, didn't know about our secret... the people who didn't know we were Sailor Senshi.

Ami had gone off to Germany to go to some school for doctors. Makoto had gone to France for cooking school. Minako had flown to America to try her hand as an entertainer. Rei and I had both remained in Japan to go to a local college- neither of us had any idea what we wanted to do for the long term. It was spring break, and everyone had returned for a long weekend. I was thankful that I finally had other people around than Rei, but not used to the hustle and bustle of a full house anymore after their absence during the winter.

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I threw the shirt into the pile by my bed and slid the shopping list into the back pocket of my unnecessarily tight jeans (something purchased for me by Minako in the US- she said they looked great on me) and realized that I was still staring into the mirror. Frowning, I brushed a straight lock of silvery blonde hair from my face and wondered if it was time for another hair cut yet. The last time I had been to a hair salon was in August of the past year (I could still hear the stylist's incessant chattering in my ears) and my hair had grown quite a bit. My short bangs had grown out to frame my face, and in the back, my long mane stretched all the way down to my ass. Michiru once told me that as a woman my hair was one of my strongest attributes- personally, it was the only thing I was proud of. Left out of that ridiculous hairstyle Serenity had kept hers in, my hair was silky and straight, my most beautiful feature.

'Not that I have much to compare it to,' I thought with a scowl as my eyes swept up and down my figure. Unlike the other inners (even Ami), who had developed gorgeous hour-glass figures through highschool, my breasts remained small, my hips wide, and though I admittedly had quite a nice ass, my figure was more scrawny and girlish than the others. Fortunately, I had lost the baby weight that I had feared would plague me forever, but it left my body all hard angles and muscle and my face sharp.

I shook myself away from the mirror. 'Stop complaining,' I snapped mentally at myself. 'You could be off a thousand times worse.' I grabbed a black tank top and a zip-up white hoodie with a dragon on the back from my dresser and was out the door before my shirt was halfway on.

* * *

I made my way down the slightly less crowded lunch-time streets of Tokyo with a bounce in my step as I hummed along with the mp3-player hooked into my ears. It was currently blaring out the ripped American pop music from a CD I had asked Minako to bring back for me- a favorite I had developed after finally starting to pay attention in my English class the year before last and began listening to American music. It was a song called 'Leave Out All the Rest' from a Linkin Park CD that had confused Minako- which in turn had confused me. After which she had explained to me, laughing, that it just hadn't seemed like the type of music I would like.

I was sinking deeper and deeper into the lyrics, not paying attention to my surroundings, when I saw him.

He was- beautiful. Ethereal. He radiated a light that I knew in half a second could not be human. He was tall, probably either twenty or just below, with short, slicked-back dark hair, a long black trench coat, and purple eyes the exact same shade of Rei's. I let my gaze sweep past him with only a momentary pause, realizing what he was just as I stepped beside him.

It was like time paused. My silvery hair brushed across my face. The people around us seemed to stop. He half turned his head to watch my hair as I passed, but I kept my gaze facing firmly forward, even as I opened my mouth.

"Good morning, Shinigami-san." And then I was gone.

I fit into the crowd seamlessly, calmly back on track towards the supermarket. But my heart raced with excitement, blood pounding through my veins. It had been so long since I had done anything related to magic or Senshi business that even passing a simple demonic Shinigami on the street made me jump for joy on the inside.

For a moment I could hear him some ways behind me, trying to follow me- I realized that he had been invisible to most humans' eyes when I had spoken to him- but then I was too far away, and I could no longer make out any signs or disruption from the normal crowd behind me. My throat shifted as I swallowed, and I stopped by the side of the road to wait for a pause in the cars so I could make my way to the supermarket. The list in my back pocket shifted as though reminding me, and I tugged at my belt loops. After a moment, there was a lull in the traffic, and I sprinted across the road in the quick pause. However, two steps across, I realized that my cell had slipped from my pocket and hit the ground behind me, and I had just stooped down to reach for it when I heard the car's horn blast. My heart stopped. I had just snatched the phone off the ground, unable to stop from my original movement, when I felt a force like a freight train slam into me from behind.

We hit the ground of the sidewalk with an audible thud, and my ear phones popped out. My eyes snapped shut and then open as we flew through the air and hit the pavement, and they stared widely up at my savior as we laid prone in a circle of concerned spectators. The air had all been expelled from me with a loud exhale as we had hit the ground, and I struggled to catch it as I stared at the second beautiful man I had had the pleasure of seeing today. My hair had spread below me on the ground like a halo, my ear phones lay blairing American music loudly enough for me to hear even several inches away from my ears, and my face was probably as red as a cherry from our provocative position. My legs were spread wide open with one of his knees propped up in between them, my arms were out to my sides with his hands resting on either side of my shoulders, and his face was close enough to mine for his silver bangs to brush my cheek.

Despite most likely being around fifteen years older than myself, he was undeniably gorgeous, and knew it, judging from the smirk on his face at my blush. His right eyes was a smooth, dark gray, and the other was a startlingly light silver that made it noticeably different from the right- it would be covered by his bangs when in a normal position, I could tell. However, that smirk was gone in a second as he sat back on his knees and then stood, putting out one hand to help me up. I took it thankfully, grabbing my earphones with my other hand and throwing them over my shoulder, willing the blush on my face to go away unhelpfully.

"Are you alright?" He murmured softly, giving me a once-over as I stood. I nodded, unable to verbally respond, and my blush didn't disappate as he kept my hand in his. He tilted his head to the side and nodded, pulling a card from his pocket with the other and pressing it into my hand that was still trapped in his. "I'm a doctor," he assured me in a deep, smooth voice as he gave me the card. "Make an appointment if anything seems off. Wouldn't want you to suffer from any lasting effects." The gorgeous, white-clad doctor waited as I took the card, bowed, and thanked him quietly before making his way into the yielding crowd. I ignored their quiet mutterings as they dispersed and looked down at the card in my had. **Muraki Kazutaka**, it displayed proudly in thick black kanji above his title, office, and phone numbers. "Muraki Kazutaka," I whispered to myself as I looked in the direction he had gone. The blush came back full force. I popped my ear phones back into my ears and started down the street again just as 'Valentine's Day' began.

* * *

"I already told you I'm fine, Minako," I laughed as I swung myself onto the stool next to her and leaned on the counter. I shot Makoto a cheesy grin as she passed by with a tray of cookies, but she moved them just beyond my reach with a giggle as I attempted to snatch one.

"After dinner," she laughed as she made her way out to the dining room. Minako rolled her eyes and called my attention back to her with a snap of her fingers, but not even her serious attitude could dispell my good mood. I juimped back off the stool and grabbed her arm, pulling her off with me as I pressed a button on the radio sitting a foot away on the kitchen counter.

"This is a serious matter!" The blonde-haired beauty tried to press upon me over the dancing music suddenly blasting through the speakers. Ami laughed at us from her place several feet away at the sink and I grinned at her, then at Minako.

"C'mon, Aiko-chan, dance with me!" I yelled over the music with a saucy wink as I shifted back, avoiding the returning Makoto, and pulled Minako's arms into mine. After a moment she rolled her eyes again and stopped trying to resist my charms (hah), giving in and dancing with me. Stupid grins adorned both of our faces and Ami and Makoto were both smiling and laughing (not that we could hear it) at our childishness as they finished making dinner. I didn't allow myself to think about Rei, who had stormed off in an unreasonable huff earlier that day after I had told the others about my near-death experience with the car, avoiding mention of the Shinigami and any description of my savior.

I couldn't hear the door swing open, but I noticed Ami and Makoto both stop laughing as they turned to look at it- a moment too late obviously, as Minako and I had just begun a particularly provocative dance move. I turned around too late and was pulled forcibly from Minako by my arm just as she reached out and switched off the radio.

"What the hell, Rei?" I demanded loudly as I shrugged off her arm and whirled violently to face her. Her beautiful face was twisted in anger, disgust, or some other strong, negative feeling I couldn't identify, and her dark hair had begun slipping from the bun it had been pulled into on the back of her head to curl attractively around her shoulders. I felt a drop of sweat drip down my neck and swept my hair over the shoulder of my black tank top as I felt Minako come to stand behind me.

"What the hell are you getting nasty at me for? I'm the one who came in here and found you guys grinding and sweating like a bunch of disgusting animals." Rei snapped. This was the first time she had gotten nasty at any of the others. I was surprised, but I saw Minako's attractively flushed face become slightly offended.

"We were just playing around Rei, there's no need to get so rude. This is our house too." Minako told Rei rudely with a scowl, shouldering her way in front of me.

"Playing around?" Rei scoffed, stepping up so that her nose was inches away from the blonde's. I frowned, pulling at the front of my tank to try to cool myself down. "You guys are always all over each other!" I opened my mouth to retort and placed a hand on Minako's shoulder to calm her, but I was shocked out of my action when Minako pulled one hand back and slugged Rei in the face.

"Minako!" I shrieked, covering my mouth with my hands as Rei staggered back.

"I'm tired of you always going off on us for stupid shit and getting pissed off about things that aren't our fault!" Minako screamed in Rei's face. I glanced back to look at Makoto and Ami, and both of their jaws were hanging on their hinges. Rei's hand was clutching her nose, and blood was dribbling down over her lips.

Minako pushed Rei into the living room and I could hear them screaming at each other for several moments. Ami led me over to the counter and I sat in between her and Makoto for those tense minutes as we waited for silence, a truce, thuds- anything other than that continuous screaming. I stared down at my hands, pale, cold all of a sudden. I accepted a cookie from a shrugging Makoto with a slightly hysterical giggle and was facing the door in a split second as Minako stepped in. She didn't say anything or look at us as she made her way to the refrigerator, and we heard the front door slam shut as she opened it. We all stared at her as she grabbed a random bottle of alcohol, popped of the top, and chugged it. The hum of the open fridge was silenced as she sighed, put the bottle back, and closed it. Then she turned to face our awaiting expressions and stared at us for a moment before shrugging slightly.

"I told her not to come back again before she got her act together," she told us uncomfortably, avoiding our eyes. Suddenly I flew into her shoulder, hugging her against me. She held me as I sobbed, no one saying anything about the slightly swollen eye she had surely just gained in the other room.

* * *

So, seems like it's time for a new start. Having lost any and all inspiration I had for After Death (for those of you who remember the FIRST YnM/SM crossover), I recently decided to start writing again. Lack of reviews kinda caused a lack of inspiration last time, haha. So, if you like it, let me know. Reviews make meh happeh. Oh, and I have no idea where this is going, by the way. It's not going to be anything like After Death, and as you can already tell, it has a little shojo ai in the beginning. For those of you that makes go 'squick', however, don't worry. Rei's not as evil as she's looking so far, but Usa's probably gonna end up with a dude. If you want to know who I have in mind so far, go back and read the first paragraph. It's not who you're thinking, though. :D


	2. Dreams in the Cold

It was freezing. Much too cold for spring.

"Ami?" I gasped out, slowly opening my eyes and blearily staring up into the sky. Alarm bells went off in my mind. I _definitely_ remembered falling asleep on the couch in my room at the shared house.

White snow cascaded down from above, and a spotless blanket of cold covered the earth all around me. I lay cushioned on an icy mountainside in nothing but the black tank top and red drawstring pants I had gone to bed in.

"Hello?" I choked out, wrenching myself to my feet. My voice echoed back to me. From what I could tell, I seemed to be in the middle of a mountain range stretching for miles- at first, I tried to think of the mountains closest to where I lived, but I realized after a moment that I was most definitely not in the human world anymore.

'The Imaginary World?' I thought to myself, rubbing cold hands up and down my arms to try to warm them. 'How could I have ended up in the world of the Shinigami while still technically alive?' I wondered desperately.

"Help!" I yelled, taking a step forward. I crashed to the ground. White dust rose all around me, catching in my hair and on my cheeks. My feet and arms were tinged with blue, reminding me again of Ami in her strongest Senshi form. Her skin gained an icy tinge and her hair began to form tiny icicles.

"Help!" I screamed desperately. I couldn't die like this, without fighting for life. I couldn't let it end this way!

A loud roar echoed behind me, and I snapped my head back so fast my hair whipped through the air behind it. The only things I saw were blindingly shining blue eyes and a gigantic, gaping mouth full of sharp white teeth before I knew no more.

* * *

I rocketed forward on the couch, toppling off the side and hitting the ground hard on my hip. The only sound I made after a choked groan of pain was my heavy panting. I lay on the ground and waited for the pain to fade before standing up. My eyes opened just in time to see the last of the blue tinge fading from my fingertips. My soft pink pajama pants warmed them as I rubbed them furiously against the material.

'What does this mean?' I wondered silently to myself with a tired sigh as I gingerly sat back on the couch. This wasn't the first time I had had that dream, nor was it the second. 'Fourth time,' I thought with a frown, sitting back and grabbing the glass of water at the small end table, only to find it empty.

After a moment of deliberation, I stood with an exaggerated sigh and stretched before setting out to the kitchen. The hallway was silent and empty, the window showed the sky beginning to get lighter. I wondered what time it was.

Stepping into the kitchen, I was blinded. I stood in the threshold for a moment with one hand over my eyes, gathering my bearings. A muffled snort made me lift my arm from one eye temporarily to squint at Minako. The blonde was slouched forward at the marble counter, nursing a coffee in one hand a her chin in the other. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were clouded with amused weariness. The clock above the stove informed me that it was five in the morning.

In my tired state of mind, I wondered what she was doing there, when it should have been Rei, already dressed and ready for the day with my tea on the stove. Then I remembered the weekend before.

"Morning," I muttered, slowly lowering my arm and meandering across the room to try and find the kettle.

"Morning," she murmured back just as enthusiastically, lifting the cup to her lips to take a small sip. We both winced at the thud the cabinet door made as it slammed against the door, and I waved a hand to the side in some sort of apology. I pulled out the kettle and had just begun to set it down when Minako yawned, stood, and left, announcing that she was going to take a shower. I gave a distracted nod in reply as I turned on the sink and watched the water fill it.

As soon as the door swung shut, the phone rang. Shocked at it's audaciousness (who would dare call at such an early hour?), I stared at it for a moment before I realized that I should probably answer it.

"Hello?" I questioned grouchily. Who felt it right to call so early in the god-forsaken morning?

"Good morning, Tsukino-san." It was a cheerful, mid-toned male voice with a hidden undertone of seriousness. I was immediately alarmed, having no idea who it was.

"How can I help you?" I asked suspiciously, glancing surreptitiously out the kitchen window before pulling the blinds closed.

"We've noticed some odd goings-on around your area..." the man hinted, seemingly reluctant.

"Cut the crap," I hissed, "I'm not playing your games. Who is this?"

""Have you ever heard of a man called Muraki Kazutaka, Tsukino Usagi-san?" I froze. My eyes flew to the card sitting on the counter beside the coffee machine, illuminated lightly by the artificial light hanging above.

"Not that I recall. Why?" I questioned. My voice was dark and obviously hostile. I was not in the mood to play some insane creep's twenty questions, and there was a chance that it was an enemy of the doctor just trying to find out if I knew anything about him.

"He's a bad man, Tsukino-san," the unknown man told me, losing all false pretenses and leaving the confident seriousness bare. "You'd do well not to associate with him."

"I'll remember that," I snapped into the microphone before slamming it down onto the receiver. The silence of the kitchen unsettled me, and I hit the switch to turn on the ceiling fan on my way out.

* * *

No other interesting events took place that morning. After the odd, anonymous phone call (which had come from a blocked number), I got dressed, Minako got out of the shower, and we went to meet the outers at the closest park.

Haruka and Michiru were off tour and had brought Hotaru back with them after a mini-vacation to France. Setsuna had taken time off for the occasion and was planning on spending the day with the five of us. Although the other inners were all either out of the country or on bad terms with me, I had the feeling that it was going to be a good day.

"Bread," Minako read from a checklist dropped off by Michiru the day before. Her hair was left free around her shoulders, and it flowed smoothly down to her waist like liquid gold. She was wearing a red and white checkered button-up shirt with a white tee underneath and faded blue jeans.

"Bread, check," I chirped as I dropped the afore-mentioned item into the open picnic basket waiting on the counter next to Minako. The entire kitchen was flooded with a lazy mid-morning light shining in through the open window, glinting off the silvery highlights in my hair and shining blindingly off of the white marble counter.

"Okay, I think we've got everything," Minako chimed, leaning over to look in the basket. Her hair dropped over one shoulder like a shimmering waterfall. I grinned at her and slammed the basket closed in her face. "Hey!" she laughed, slouching back and sliding down off the counter. I was about to grab the picnic basket and make my way out when I realized something.

"Ah, crap," I muttered, snapping my fingers and taking a step back. The Senshi of Venus sent me an odd look. "I forgot something in my room," I told her, pointing a thumb over my shoulder. "Why don't you take the picnic basket to the front room while I go up and get it?"

"You got it, sugar." After Minako sent me a cheerful smile and a wink, I left her to pad out to the front room while I darted up the stairs. Crashing through the door to my room, I swept my gaze across the room quickly and reached forward to snatch up my mp3 player off a pile of clothes among the many sitting in random places in my room.

Upon catching sight of the black tank top sitting innocently on top of the red drawstring pants, I felt my stomach lurch. I gnawed on my lip uncertainly and took a step back, then turned to leave when I caught sight of myself in the mirror on the left wall.

I was wearing the same tight, dark jeans and small blue spaghetti-string top I had been wearing when I left my room that morning. I had the same soft white toenail polish as when I had painted them the night before. My hair was in the same style I had placed it in a mere hour ago, a low silvery-blonde ponytail with my bangs left out to frame my face.

However, some things were _not_ the same as they had been when I left the kitchen only a moment ago. Cerulean blue eyes had lightened to icy-blue with specks of silvery, snowy white throughout the irises. My skin had lightened from it's normal, lightly-tanned hue to a pale, soft peach. A shining white mark had appeared on my forehead- a mark that was most definitely not a crescent moon.

I gave a gurgled half-cry and tipped back over the chair behind me onto my ass behind it, covering my eyes with my hands even as I landed on my back. My fingers met cold skin. I lay startled for a moment before almost tripping back over the chair again in an effort to get back to the mirror. My wide eyes had become cerulean again, my skin had darkened to its normal hue, and the mark had disappeared from my forehead.

For a moment I stared in bemused disbelief at myself. Minako's yelled summons from below reminded me that I had things to do, however, and I slowly backed out of sight of the mirror before snatching up the same hoodie I had worn the day I ran into the Shinigami and the doctor and ran out the door, slamming it behind me.

* * *

Setsuna and I laughed as we watched Minako and Hotaru splashing happily at Michiru and Haruka in the small creek a ways off from where we had set up our picnic. After we had eaten, the others had decided to go and play around in the water, while the green-haired Guardian of Time and I had preferred the shade offered in our eating place.

"They look happy, don't they?" I asked Setsuna wistfully, leaning all my weight on my arms and reclining back a bit. Setsuna nodded from her place sitting right against the tree, a soft smile on her face.

"It's good that these times of peace and stability are here for harmony to take its place among the people," Setsuna hummed. I paused, then sighed and rotated my head around to look at her.

"You're talking about me and Rei, ne?" I asked. Setsuna shrugged, allowing an amused gaze to pass over me before looking back to the senshi cheerfully frolicking in the clear water.

"Some things happen for a reason," she hinted. I blinked at her and kissed my teeth for a moment, wondering if I should confide in her. No one knew about the dreams at that point, but with them occurring more and more often combined with the vision I had had that afternoon in my room, things were becoming increasingly unsettling.

"I've been having this dream- or vision," I corrected, "I don't really know what it is." Setsuna placed her complete focus on me and waited to say anything until I was completely done describing my dreams and my vision from the mirror to say anything.

"That's quite a predicament it seems like you're going to be getting yourself into," she mused. Surprised, I leaned towards her. The others played on, unnoticed, in front of us.

"Are you saying I might be having visions of a future event?" I asked. I was unaware that senshi other than the Guardian of Time could display powers like that.

Setsuna rolled one shoulder in its socket, staring into space as she thought. "It's possible," she confirmed, "but not probable." I blinked. "At least, it wouldn't be normal with any other Moon soldier. But considering the time you've spent fighting with all of us and using our combined powers, it wouldn't be completely surprising if you started to gain some of our more subtle talents." I nodded in understanding.

"So you're saying that... this might be inevitable?" Despite an extreme increase in self control over the years, I felt panic rising up in my throat. Setsuna's steady expression calmed me.

"Don't worry," she told me. I snorted quietly. "considering the vision you observed in the mirror today, I'll say that whatever it is that's going to happen in the Imaginary World is going to end well." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her serene tone and cryptic words.

"What's that supposed to-" My words were cut off by a strangled noise of surprise as the combined weights of Minako and Hotaru slammed into me. Suddenly I was being dragged, laughing, into the creek, and I didn't have a chance to talk to Setsuna alone again for the rest of the night.

* * *

That night, after we had gotten home, washed up, ate, and went to our separate rooms, I sat alone on my couch, staring at myself in the mirror across the room. My cerulean blue eyes shone with cool confidence. My hair was left free to flow down over my small curves. The black tank top hugged my upper half comfortable and the red drawstring pants left me enough room to maneuver around comfortably in my sleep (or otherwise).

I spent about ten minutes steeling my nerves before laying down to sleep, but when I finally did, I fell asleep surprisingly quickly for all my tense nerves.

Moments later, I felt the cold brush of packing snow against my arm and opened my eyes. For miles around, the only thing I could see was white. I had fallen into the Imaginary World again- but this time, it was for real.

* * *

Okie dokie folks. Snowflakewriting here. :D Sup? Yeah, anyways, greeting aside. This chapter has some rather obviously strong plot points- moving along to a point I can't really see yet, haha. Also, I'm finally getting into some of that action I promised in the genre. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but my fingers feel like they're gonna fall off. I wasn't gonna write more for a while, but those reviews really motivated me. Thanks, friends. If you want the next chapter to come out as quickly as this'un, I'd suggest doing the same thing. Every time I see I've gotten a new review, ideas sort of just start trickling into my mind and I sit down and start writing, heh. And you know what I just realized? Both of my stories on this account are YnMxSM and have Death in the title. Lol.


	3. White Dragon of the Mountains

I was on my feet in an instant, my gaze shooting in every direction

I was on my feet in an instant, my gaze shooting in every direction. White mountains stretched as far as the eye could see. My feet felt curiously numb from the ice they rested on, and when I glanced down, I discovered they were beginning to turn blue. I swallowed and looked up. An uncharacteristic self-confidence gripped me, and I let my voice ring out loudly.

"I know you're here," I called. My call echoed back at me, and then there was silence. I slowly pivoted on my heels. Snow was falling softly onto my paling skin, but rather than melting as it landed, it retained its shape and stayed the same.

A loud roar made me whip around on the spot to stare ever the edge of a nearby drop just as the magnificent form of a gigantic European Dragon forced its claws into the frozen ground there.

"Human," the white creature snorted at me. Mist drifted lazily up from its nostrils, and its white body was marked by twisting silver and light blue tattoos. Its eyes were a brilliant, shimmering silver. At the center of its forehead resided the same silver crest I had seen on my own in the mirror- two connected diamond shapes. The monstrous shape it cut in the mountain behind it was impressive. I doubted it found me in the same manner.

"My name is Tsukino Usagi," I told the beast, feeling sureness emanate from every pore in my body. It tilted its head as it stared down at me. I wondered if it was male or female, then dismissed the thought as foolish.

"I am Koori Aoiro, Lord of these mountains," the majestic creature murmured in a voice that rolled from deep inside his chest like a lawn mower. I noticed that his mouth didn't move when he spoke; then I realized that he had answered my unspoken question, and I had to choke back almost hysterical laughter. I was a bit off balance.

"I have come to your lands to challenge you, Koori Aoiro," I yelled, grinding my bare feet into the icy snow to ground myself against the harrowing wind. The blue dragon considered me for a moment, then let out a loud noise I later realized was laughter.

"Is that so, Tsukino Usagi?" I wasn't sure. I didn't know what would come out if I tried to answer. That was a rhetorical question, wasn't it?

The snow darkened as a cloud passed in the path of the sun. As the shadow passed over the dragon, he surged upward and flapped his wings, sending a mighty gust of wind towards me. I was knocked off my feet, rolling several feet backwards. Time seemed to stop. I had landed hard on my ass, my hands and feet digging deep gouges in the snow in the process, and as our gazes met, I felt a wave of animosity so great it reminded me of chaos- but only in strength, not darkness. I realized what had happened in a split second, and I was on my feet and hightailing it up the side of the mountain by the time a gigantic icicle had collided with the ground exactly where I had landed.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' my inner-Usagi chanted. My feet were slamming into the ground harder than I'd every run barefoot before, and I felt the skin on the bottom of my left foot crack open and bleed. As I neared a ledge jutting off the side of the mountain in front of me, I leapt upward and snatched the edge, propelling myself upwards just as another huge icicle crashed into the mountain right below me. I didn't pause to look up for my adversary, merely kept up the pace and darted in between two huge boulders.

I kept my breathing slow and quiet as I crouched in a small opening beneath two boulders resting against each other, not risking the chance of Koori Aoiro seeing me if I tried to poke my head out to gauge his position.

'Come on, Usagi,' I thought desperately, 'what did Ami tell you about the weaknesses of European Ice Dragons?'

I heard a roar. It echoed off of the mountains, getting louder and louder, and I rolled into a tight ball, clutching my hands over my ears. When the noise finally paused, I took the risk and jetted out into the open, seeing my large, scaled enemy coming straight at me too late.

As my feet hit the next boulder, the dragon's face was at a distance of less than ten feet from me. I attempted to sideswipe him, directing my path to the left side of his face, but I forgot about my injured foot and faltered. That one mistake was all it took for him to take advantage and clamp his gigantic jaws down over my left shoulder, trapping my entire arm beneath two shining, extremely sharp, super-sized dragon teeth. There was a fair chance that the scream I let out deafened him, as well as anyone within a three mile radius of or battle ground.

My eyes watered, and I squeezed them shut. My usable arm was grasping at the great beast's mouth, trying to take some of the pressure off my injured shoulder, and my legs flailed uselessly in the air. I opened my eyes to a squint just in time to watch a thick stream of blood pour down to the ground, which was becoming more and more distant as the seconds passed, and an idea bloomed within my mind.

Gingerly, I started to move the fingers of my left hand within Koori Aoiro's mouth. I winced as pain shot through the muscles in my upper arm and ignored the disgusting dragon-saliva sloshing around the slender digits. When I deemed my hand capable of movement, partly because we were a good deal farther from the ground already than I knew I could survive, I pushed it into my sub-space pocket and snatched the Sword of Artemis, wasting no time in plunging it upwards into the soft roof of my dragon-assailants mouth.

The resulting roar shocked me. Let out so close to my ear, I was struck immobile as the Lord of the Mountains flung me at the ground, my fingers slipping from the hilt of the Sword of Artemis. I stared at the dragon flailing in midair in wide-eyed shock as I flew towards the ground at impossible-to-survive speeds, unable to think. The amusing question of how I would look to someone on the ground was the last thing that passed through my mind before I hit the rock ledge and splattered all over the side of the mountain.

* * *

  
Pain shook my world as I sucked in my first gasping breath. As my eyes flew open and were flooded with blinding light, I felt my body pull in and convulse. I could make out several blurry figures standing over me- the owners, I suspected, of the hands desperately attempting to hold me flat onto the bed. In the background, behind the bright overhead lights and indescribable hurt, a woman was screaming. It was the shrillest, most mindlessly anguish-filled sound I had ever heard. I realized belatedly that the noise was coming from me.

I felt as though I was far away from these people; as though their blurry forms were visible to me from the bottom of ten feet of water. My words were sluggish and indecipherable even to me, separated by the long fits of screaming I had described earlier. I could make no sense of my surroundings other than the pain.

Suddenly it stopped. My eyes closed and I fell flat against the bed, a dull moan of fatigue passing through my slightly parted lips. A man's voice, coming from somewhere to my right, issued a snapping order to the others in the room and I heard them withdraw.

For a moment, there was blessed silence. I wondered how long the fit had lasted and what had caused it. The last thing I remembered was…

I flew into a sitting position and hunched forward with a gasp. Hurriedly, I looked myself over and lifted the blanket to check that all of my body had made it from the side of the mountain. Relieved that I was indeed whole, I sighed and looked down at my hands. Then I froze. Not only was I quite obviously naked, but I had regained the physical attributes that had been present in my vision at the mirror. I was just reaching up to touch my forehead and see if I could feel the dragon's crest there when I turned my head to the right and realized that the man from before hadn't left. I let out a low groan of embarrassment and pulled the cover up to hide my upper body, which he had most likely already seen.

He was gorgeous, but that couldn't mask his obvious identity. Beautiful silver eyes blinked lazily at me from beneath the silver crest. His expression was pulled into amusement, one corner of his lips tilted up. White hair was cut short in the back and flipped over his face, streaked with silver the same shade as his crest and light blue. A majestic, intricate dark blue robe that gave him a distinct air of royalty adorned his slim-features. I couldn't see his feet, but his hands were intertwined in his lap, a gold ring with a red ruby shining at me from his right pinky finger.

"Good morning, Tsukino Usagi-chan," the man greeted. He inclined his head slightly as he spoke, not moving his amused gaze from mine. I noticed with a bit of annoyance that he had a beautiful voice to match his appearance, not as deep as the silver-haired doctor's rough tones, but with a hint of a musical lilt.

"What, come to gloat after you splattered me all over the side of a mountain, Koori?" I shot at him, not amused. I ignored the slight blush I could feel on my cheeks and wondered if he'd just stared when I accidentally revealed myself. "And where are we, anyways?"

His expression didn't change. "This is my home in the capital of the Imaginary World," he said, swinging one hand out to indicate the room behind him, "the city of the Shikigami." I turned my gaze past him. The room was richly furnished with elegant draperies and furniture in the fashion of old Japanese imperials. I wondered just where he ranked amongst the other Shikigami.

"Why am I here?" I asked him, focusing on the man who had killed me for what I imagined was the fifth or sixth time I'd died.

"I was, I will admit, a bit panicked at the time of your death," he allowed, closing his eyes as he shrugged. I froze when he suddenly zeroed that intense silver stare in on me.

"Panicked?" I asked, moving nothing but my lips. He nodded. "Why?"

"Well, I was in a spot of pain, you see," Koori said with a light smirk, "and the woman who had defeated me in battle, the first in hundreds of years to do so, had just splattered all over the side of one of my mountains." I snorted, letting my mind pass over the part about 'first in hundreds of years' and concentrating on his intention.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I shot.

"It has to do with everything," he emphasized, his gaze seemingly genuine. I was struck suddenly by his attractiveness. I wondered for a moment how many wives he had. Then I shook my head and brought myself back to the topic at hand.

"So… what did you do?" I asked, curious about how he had managed to get the sword up and scrape me off the mountain to bring me so far away.

He gave a slight laugh, and a smirk resided on his face when it ended. "I waited until the sword fell out and you had regenerated enough to be collectable to bring you back," he told me with an inclination of his head. I realized what we were talking about a moment he spoke.

"You still haven't told me why you brought me here rather than just leaving me there on the mountain," I snapped with a scowl. The color of stone, so out of place in those rich surroundings, made me turn my head. The Sword of Artemis rested on a pedestal to the left side of my bed, opposite Koori. All of the blood that I was sure had been on it had been cleaned off.

"I thought it would be obvious," the gorgeous dragon scoffed with a roll of his eyes, "but them again, you don't know the rules, do you?" He asked, blinking at me.

"The rules?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not," he mumbled to himself, looking down. Then he locked his silver gaze back on to me. "Shinigami- you know what Shinigami are, don't you?" He asked, pausing long enough for me to nod. "Shinigami come to the Imaginary World to seek Shikigami to control and summon in the Human World when in need of assistance- usually in battle," he explained. This I knew, I tried to signal to him. He seemed not to notice.

"When a Shinigami finds a compatible Shikigami around their power level, they challenge it."

I froze.

"You understand now?" Koori asked, leaning languidly back in his chair.

"But I'm not a Shinigami," I denied, rubbing my ice cold hands together in my lap.

"I know," he murmured, "which is the part that I don't understand." I went still again beneath his penetrating stare. "How did you regenerate and survive after that fall? How did you get a hold of the Sword of Artemis? Hell, how did you even get into the world of the Shikigami?"

The room was silent for a moment. I looked down at my hands and wondered how I should answer.

"Before I can answer those questions, there's something I need to ask you," I told my dragon-esque murderer and rescuer. "Since I technically defeated you in the battle," having won _before _I became a puddle all over a bunch of boulders, "does that make you my Shikigami? Does that mean I'm your master now?"

Koori opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it and simply nodded. I kissed my teeth and looked over at the Sword of Artemis. Well, what now?

"Now you answer my questions?" He asked, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head to the side. Oh, yeah. That.

"Well, the third question's going to be the simplest to answer, so I suppose I'll start with that," I began with a sigh. "I have no idea how I got here." We stared blankly at each other.

"Seriously?" the white dragon deadpanned. I shrugged. "Did you just… what, appear there?" he asked. Finding that close to the general idea without going into detail, I nodded.

"And what about the others? The regeneration and the Sword?" The room was well lit, but there were no windows. I wondered what time of the day it was, how long I had been there. Then I remembered that there was something else I'd meant to ask my new Shikigami about.

"Why is it that I look different now?" I asked, holding up the hand that wasn't pressing the blanket to my chest. Koori's lips twisted into a frown, but he said nothing about the change of topic.

"I am a special type of Shikigami," he started. "You know about the difference between parasitic Shikigami and normal Shikigami, yes?" I agreed. "I am technically neither of those. Or, rather, both."

The room was silent for a moment, but when I failed to reply for that long, Koori continued. "I can be summoned, but in times of great need, I will simply reveal myself through you as a parasitic Shikigami would."

"So, you're saying that," I said slowly, feeling my eye twitch, "these attributes aren't going to go away?" He blinked, and I could see amusement revealing itself in his eyes.

"Well, they should go away for the most part," I narrowed my eyes at him, "except for a few things. I really don't know what will remain, I've never been in this situation before." Oh. "They should only be noticeable around times of great stress or magical usage."

"Okay," I sighed. "Now I just need to know how long I've been here and how I get home." Koori rose slowly, making his way across the room to pick up a set of clothes from the top of a white, gold lined dresser.

"Put these on," he ordered as he set them on the bed next to me, "and I'll explain while you do it." He stood there. I stared at him.

"You're not expecting me to just get dressed in front of you, are you?" I asked, eye twitching and blush rising.

"I thought it was worth a shot, after before," he sighed, a smirk on his face as he walked to the door. I scowled, knowing my face had to be cherry red by then.

I dressed as quickly as possible as soon as Koori left the room, but my complete attention was focused on his voice coming through the door.

"You've been in the Imaginary World for about eight hours," he confirmed through the door. The clothes that he had given were very different than the ones I had fallen asleep in, I realized with a slight frown as I pulled on the black lace panties he had given me and struggled with the clasp of the lacy tan bra (which was mercifully in the front). I think he realized some of my frustration and gave a quiet chuckle as I paused before responding.

"Eight hours? That's almost perfect," I snorted slightly as I pulled up the black silk pants and began to pull the white shirt over my head.

"This will be your room whenever you come to the Imaginary World," he continued. "I'll open a portal for you to get back and I'll explain the rest later." The shirt fit perfectly, what a surprise, with tank-top sleeves and a ruffled collar that came down between my breasts, revealing a hint of the lacy underwear beneath.

"I'm decent," I called, and he was through the door in half a second as though he had known it was coming. A loud ripping noise erupted from a back corner of the room, next to a fully equipped, waist-high glass vanity with a stool beneath it. I strode over to it, snatching up the Sword of Artemis on the way and letting it disappear into my sub-space pocket, then paused in front of the hole and turned to face him.

"The clothes look good on you," he told me calmly, having come right beside me when I wasn't watching him. I wondered if a human could have done the same thing as I ignored the blush that arose at the finger he ran softly along the bottom hem of my shirt.

"How will I get back here?" I asked quickly, knowing that the portal behind me was starting to shrink. Koori's eyes came back up to meet mine as her reached his hand into his pants pocket and withdrew a small silver ring with a sapphire embedded into it. He picked up my hand and slid it onto my pinky finger, which it fit perfectly, then held my hand in his as he started to speak.

"If you need me; call me, I'll come to you. If you need to speak with me; speak, I'll hear you. And if you want to come back to me, put a drop of your blood on the stone, it will bring you to its mate, wherever it is," he finished, holding up his right hand and flashing his almost-matching ring at me. I was struck by the romanticism of his words but merely nodded and turned, beginning to step into the portal.

"Oh, and Usagi?" I turned back, feeling my hair whirl around me like a halo. My eyes widened in shock as he swooped down and pressed his lips onto mine for a short, chaste kiss. "Keep your eyes open," he told me with a smirk when he withdrew. I stared at him in shock for a moment before he snapped one hand out on my shoulder and pushed me backwards, sending me falling back into the portal.

* * *

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know this chapter is really long and kinda boring, sobs. But it was necessary for the plot to get anywhere, and I swear, there'll be more canon characters in the next chapter. This chapter took so long to get out because I accidentally deleted it twice, once when it was just a page long and once when it was a page and a half, lol. It was kind of difficult on my work ethic, but I finally finished. Nyaaaaay. And I'm also halfway across the country from my home right now, in Texas, but the heat is kind of actually helping. And all of these sexy army men everywhere are inspiring. :D

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted, or c2-ed, and especially to anyone I forgot. I love you guys. ;.;


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